Archive for June, 2010
Snapshot Yangzhou: future vision
On the outskirts of the city, the huge mall loomed as a vision of the future towards which China is aiming. On the outskirts of the bustling city lies some of the newest additions to the area, a modern development area that includes the enormous mall here, as well as the giant new museum that [...]
June 28th, 2010Snapshot Yangzhou: dorm room
Our desks, made our own We stayed in the international student dorms during our time in Yangzhou, and for a small monthly fee (around 5 dollars), a man would come by and hook up the internet for your computer. This was a huge relief after the horrors of the Zhengzhou computer labs with their limited [...]
June 26th, 2010Snapshot Yangzhou: eating up
My favorite meal A big steaming pot of freshly-made noodles with mushrooms and cabbage; add some cayenne pepper flakes and a soy-type sauce and you’ve got a delicious, satisfying dinner. That whole pot would cost me 8 yuan, about $1.14. Plus a few yuan for a cold water. YUM. Our group ate regularly with various [...]
June 24th, 2010Snapshot Yangzhou: shortcut
Don’t mind me… It was Team China versus Team USA one hot day, and we were the sideline cheerleaders. They had kept this rivalry up for a number of sports: basketball, table tennis, and most certainly, soccer. We, the girls, were not the most cheery crowd, but we tried to be present when we had [...]
June 23rd, 2010Snapshot Yangzhou: beautiful vandalism
It’s just the classic "I was here" inclination, but in Chinese characters, the result is so much more charming. I saw it on the Great Wall, I saw it on dusty temple walls, and I saw it in the concrete surrounding any oft-visited site throughout China; but the graffiti on the members of this lush [...]
June 21st, 2010Snapshot Yangzhou: crazy rickshaw driver
Something’s not right here… It was a regular afternoon, and Stacey and I were either sweaty or exhausted or (probably) both, and we decided to spring for the 3-yuan (42-cent) rickshaw ride back to campus. He was confused, rightly so, by our feeble Chinese language skills, and we had tried to tell him we wanted [...]
June 18th, 2010Snapshot Yangzhou: Shouxi Lake and its gardens
Winding pathways and misty gardens along Shouxi Lake The very first day that the whole group was together, we spent a disgustingly humid day at Shouxi Lake that almost made us forget the sticky heat. Little enclaves were built in random spots, with wide-open window frames and benches and tables; old Chinese men were playing [...]
June 16th, 2010Snapshot Yangzhou: art students’ retreat
Art majors’ studio As part of our “cultural education,” we spent weekday afternoons on little excursions to museums, paper-making studios, calligraphy lessons, table tennis games, and tai chi sessions–to name a few. One of my favorites was our trek to one of the Yangzhou University art buildings, and this studio in particular. I got the [...]
June 14th, 2010We spill our hearts, to Google
Infamous for its simple homepage About a month ago, I was flipping channels and found myself watching an extended news program on Google and the history of the search engine. In one sense, it was a brilliant business idea to arise at a time when people were trying to figure out what the heck you [...]
June 11th, 2010Snapshot Yangzhou: under construction
Caution: This road under construction Walking down the street right outside the north campus entrance felt a little bit third-world, a little bit plain dangerous. But it was just construction– in this case, widening of the road. The way it was so exposed shocked me nearly every time I walked it. And unlike in the [...]
June 10th, 2010